Refrigerator closure and seal



Jan. 11, 1955 v. E. MARK ETAL REFRIGERATOR CLOSURE AND SEAL Original Filed July 27,- 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Lggd L.Andcrson VenniceBNark w ML Aiforneg 1955 v. E. MARK EIAL REFRIGERATOR CLOSURE AND SEAL Original Filed July 27, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lnuenfovs L\o dLAnderson Wnmcc ENYIark 86 w x Afiornegi mounted upon the casing or the door. I attraction becomes effective when the door IS moved to United States Patent REFRIGERATOR CLOSURE AND SEAL Vennice E. Mark and Lloyd L; Anderson, Grand Rapids, Mich., assignors to Jervis Corporation, Grandville, Mich., a corporation of Michigan 7 Claims. (CI. 2069) Matter enclosed in heavy brackets appears in the original patent but forms no part of this reissue specification; matter printed in italics indicates the additions made by reissue.

Thisinvention relates to a novel construction of closure and seal which is of particular value in connection with refrigerators, but may also be used in many other places where an elfective seal upon a door being closed is de sired. In refrigeration the seal is for the purpose of sealing against the entrance of heat into the refrigerator at or around the door opening to achieve economy in refrigeration andto reduce operation of the refrigeration machinery to a minimum.

In the present invention, as is also the case with respect to inventions disclosed in copending applications filed by us of even date, a sealing gasket of a flexible nature is interposed between the door and the casing of a refrigerator or other similar structure to surround the opening in the casing, and normally is held under a relatively heavy compression force exerted by the door through a releasable latch on the door engaging with a keeper on the door casing. The gasket may be attached to either the door or the outer face of the refrigerator around the opening, and heretofore, with the mechanical manually operable latches generally used, care was necessary to provide as accurate bearing surfaces for the gasket to engage against as possible in order to obtain a substantial uniform pressure of the gasket upon the surfaces against which it engaged. This necessitated having surfaces without pronounced irregularities, concavities and See on the plane of line 2--2 of Fig. 4 showing the latch releasing means.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view directed to a detail of construction for moving and guiding certain 6 parts of the structure from one position to the other in convexities therein which were to be eliminated 'as far as practicable, resulting in an additional cost of manufacture. In the present invention a magnetic holding of the door in closed position is provided with members carried by the flexible gasket which, mounted on either the door or refrigerator casing, it attracted to magnets Such magnetic its closed position. And by reason of the readily flexible nature of the gasket an effective seal is made with a conformation of the gasket to the surfaces against which it engages, thereby avoiding the care in producing gasket contacting surfaces and the consequent expense previously undergone in connection with the use of mechanical spring actuated or cam operated latches. Such substantially perfect sealing contact of the gasket with the surface against which it engages is also attained without the necessity of any unduly strong force required to hold the door closed to bring the gasket into effective sealing engagement with the surface against which it bears.

In the present invention a novel, relatively inexpensive and effective magnetic holding of a door closure in closed position and with an effective seal has been attained together with a simple readily operable means of rendering the magnetic holding of the door closed ineffective,

whereby the door may be released at any time desired the fingers 12 (Fig. 8). connected with one side of the channel support 8 by one of which the door closing and sealing means is operative and the other inetfective.

Fig. 4 IS a fragmentary horizontal section enlarged taken through the free edge of the door and adjacent por-' tion of the refrigerator casing with the door closed.

Figs. 5 and 6 are fragmentary vertical sections substantially on the planes of lines 55 and 6-6 of Fig. 4 looking to the left, and

Fig. 7 1s a section similar to Fig. 6 and upon the plane of the same line, 66, of Fig. 4 but with the parts released to move the door for opening.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in the different figures of the drawings.

The refrigerator casing 1 may be of a usual construction with an opening at its front for access to the interior and with a door 2 hingedly mounted thereon to close said opening. In the instant disclosure the sealing gasket 3 is mounted at the outer face of the refrigerator around the front opening therein. The gasket (Fig. 4) is made of a flexible elastic material such as rubber or the like and preferably is of the form shown in cross section in Fig. 4 with side edge portions adapted to be connected by screws or equivalent connections threaded through a reinforcing plate 4 at the inner side of the shell of the refrigerator entirely around the front opening thereof. The intermediate portion of the gasket is spaced away from said plate providing a flexible arch, and molded in and carried by the gasket are a plurality of short, preferably flat members 5 ofsoft iron which may be spaced short distances from each other (Figs. 5, 6 and 7) so as to not interfere with the flexible nature of the gasket which, as is evident, is readily yieldable inwardly upon application of pressure thereto and which will conform at its outer side to the surface of the object which it is pressed against. I

At the inner side of the door 2 a plate 7 of non-magnetic material is located which, near the peripheral edges of the door, is formed into a substantially channel form as at 8, its outer end portion terminating in a flange 9, with which and the plate 7 a thin plate 10 also of nonmagnetic material is connected extending across the open side of the channel. This provides a continuous channel chamber around the door within which the magnetic structure of my invention is housed.

Within the channel and seated substantially at the bottom thereof is a holder support in the form of a bar 11 from which at equally spaced intervals spacing fingers 12 extend toward the plate 10. Between adjacent fingers a magnet 13 is locatedat each side of which is a block 14 of non-magnetic material, the outer faces of the magnets and the blocks 14 being flush with the outer ends of The bar 11 and fingers 12 are screws or other equivalent fastenings as shown in Fig. 4.

The fingers 12, blocks 14 and magnets 13 are spaced a distance from the inner side of the plate 10. In this space a consecutive series of alternate soft iron blocks 16 and intermediate blocks 15 of non-magnetic material are. located, the length of the blocks 16 being equal to the face width of the magnets 13 and the same dimension of the blocks 15 being equal to the face width of the blocks 14. From each of the blocks 15 and 16 a proiecting portion 17 of a generally cylindrical form ex tends laterally, being received in a casing 18 of metal which is slotted at one side as shown in Fig. 3, the projections 17 being freely movable lengthwise of the casing 18 so as to change the positions of blocks 15 and 16 and, therefore, their positions relative to the magnets 13 and blocks 14 at each side thereof.

The casing 18 has a longitudinal slot 19 closed at both ends (Fig. 3) and a pin 20 connected to the part 17 of one of the blocks 15 extends through said slot. An oper ating handle having a depending outer handle 21 at the outside of the door is pivotally mounted on a pivot pin 22 and is provided with an inwardly extending arm 23,

lar to the housing in and holding of a flexible shaft.

In the normal position of the blocks 15 and 16 they are located relative to the magnets 13 and the blocks 14 at each side thereof as shown in Figs. and 6, that is, with the soft iron block 16 covering the adjacent ends of the magnets 13 and with the blocks 15 of non-magnetic material covering adjacent ends of the blocks 14. When thus located with the door moved to closing position the short blocks 5 of soft iron within the gasket 3 are magnetically attracted and the side of the gasket between the plate and the short blocks 5 is pressed against said plate 10, conforming to its surface and providing an effective seal. This is because of the paths of flow of the magnetic flux as diagrammatically indicated in Fig. 6.

When the door is to be released for opening the handle 21 is operated and the several blocks and 16 are moved relative to the magnets and the side blocks 14 of nonmagnetic material to the position shown in Fig. 7, wherein the soft iron blocks 16 extend across the adjacent faces of the blocks 14 and with the blocks 15 of non-magnetic material across the central portions of the adjacent faces of the magnets 13. In such case the flow of magnetic flux is altered as indicated in Fig. 7, and attraction upon the parts 5 released whereupon the door may be readily opened by an outward pull on the handle at 21.

With the construction described a secure and efiective' 7 door retention in closed position and also an effective seal is provided which, in connection with refrigerators, safeguards against loss of refrigeration through undesired entrance of heat from the outside. As previously mentioned the flexible seal conforms itself to the surface of the plate 10 against which it engages by reason of the pull which is exerted by the permanent magnets being transmitted and applied directly to the sealing gasket.

The invention is defined in the vappended claims and is to be considered comprehensive of all forms of structure coming within their scope.

We claim:

1. In a construction of the class described, a door jamb member, a door member movably mounted with respect thereto to bebrought into closing relationship therewith, a sealing gasket of flexible compressible material secured to one of said members at the face thereof, an elongated channel support located within the other of said members, a magnet holder located lengthwise of the channel support and secured therein having spaced apart fingers extending toward the open side of the channel,'a plate of nonmagnetic material across the open side of the channel support, a permanent magnet and a block of nonmagnetic material at each side of the permanent magnet located in each recess between adjacent fingers, a plurality of alternate blocks of soft iron and of nonmagnetic material located between said magnet holder and said plate, and means for simultaneously shifting said blocks of soft iron and of nonmagnetic material into positions where said iron blocks lie against the adjacent ends of the magnets and-said blocks of nonmagnetic material lie against the adjacent ends of the blocks of like material at each side of the magnets, or to another position where said blocks of soft iron extend across the blocks of nonmagnetic material at each side of the magnets, and the adjacent end of each magnet is partially covered by a block of nonmagnetic material between two adjacent soft iron blocks.

2. A construction as defined in claim 1, said means for shifting said iron blocks and the nonmagnetic blocks between them comprising a manually operable lever mounted on the member which carries said magnets,

vreturnin uponre 4 means associated with said lever, for it torts tmtislposition after such shifting and of the lever, in which initial position said soft is): blocks are againsttthe ends of their respective magn I v 3. A construction containingthe elements defined in claim 1, combined with a tubular guide located within said channel support lengthwise thereof and longitudinally slotted at one side, said soft iron blocks and the nonmagnetic blocks alternating therewith having projecting. portions of a generally cylindrical form d! and guided in said tubular guide, said guide havm second slot with closed ends in one side, a pin extencF and yielding a in from one of the blocks through said slot, a handle pivoted.

of said members-and adapted to be ositioned in settling relation between said members a com letely around said opening when the door member is ca cally cttractable means associated each with said gasket and with that one of the afore-mentioned members to which said gasket is not secured-at least one of said last recited means being magnetized-the ma netlcallyattractable means associated with said gasket eing carried thereby and movable therewith and being divided into a plurality of short members so as not to interfere with the flexible nature of said gasket, and said division of the magnetic means associated with said gasket permitting yieldability of said gasket wherefrom said gasket will conform at its outer side to the surface of the member against which it is pressed.

5 The structure of claim 4 wherein the divided parts of the gasket-associated magnetizable means are spaced short distances from each other to promote said noninterference with the flexible nature of said gasket.

6. The structure of claim 4 wherein the divided parts of the gasket-associated magnetizable means have a transverse dimension greater than the length thereof to; pro-. maze said noninterference with the flexible nature of said gas er.

7. In a refrigerator cabinet hermetically closable by a door the members of which comprise the door and the iamb to which it is hinged, the improvement which comprises magnetic material associated with and extending from the top to bottom of the iamb and of the doorsome of said material comprising magnets-to efiect attraction of the door and jamb to each other, means for diminishing said attraction to permit opening 'of said door comprising means for longitudinally sliding some of the magnetic material on one of the members with respect 4 to the magnetic material on the other member, and an operator accessible Jrom the front of the cabinet for shifting said longitu inally sliding means.

References Cited in the file of this patent or the original patent UNITED STATES PATENTS sed, mcgneti- 

